h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I got caught by the profanity filter!

I was updating my PS, previewed and everything looked just fine. I pressed the "update" button and I GOT CAUGHT by the profanity filter.



What I did was that I took away last month´s Thingite Calendar and nothing more. Nothing added.

"contains a word that might be offensive"




I´m a SExpert, and thus have the SExpert badge on my PS...a badge that contains the word SEx as in Science Explained...



... and thus my (and the other SExpert´s PS´s) can never be updated...?

If it is SEx that it objects to, how come you can post the word to a forum?

Surely 'SEx' isn't banned? It isn't swearing, nor a euphemism.

It's not banned. I just put the word "sex" in my u-page and it passed through the filter. Stop by and see it for yourself. You might have a problem, but it's not with that word.

I think I've just figured out where your banned word is...

Wait for it... You're going to love this one!


(Not)











I just cut and pasted the code you've got for your thingite dropdown list into a new entry - and somewhere in that enormous chunk of code there's a word the system doesn't like.


Needle? Haystack?

Good luck!

Found one word for you...

Entry 415 in that list...

e.f.f.i.n.g.

Sorry, wrong number...

Number 425, not 415

A10686422


Your userpage with that one single word changed...

Thanks, Whisky!

to you for that giganourmous work

When I logged in this morning(from w*rk, pretending to check e-mails) my PS was gone...but now it´s there again

* utterly confused*

and honestly I would never have spotted that word you pointed out - since I have no idea what it means... Must be something very english... certainly not a word I learned in school or later

Well, now I managed to update my entry...I put * between two letters in the obviously unpermitted word..

You learn as long as you live...or you live as long as you learn...so now I guess I have to find out what the"word" means...

It actually wasn't that much work...
I just took the code from your userpage, binned half of it - tried to post the other half to a new entry and kept repeating that until I ran across the line that didn't work.

As Thingite Warlord I have a vested interest in knowing what the problem with the roster code/thingite calendars are.

Can someone explain it to me please?

Clive.

Done it on the other thingite list thread Clive

I said:

profanity filter blocking thingite roster.

The offending item is apparently

425. OneInchMan - Lord Of E.ffing The Ineffable

This probably falls under moderating inappropriate nicknames - but how come it wasn't deemed yikesable before the filter but now is blocked on the ground of profanity?

I just want to protest that whilst 'e.ffing' might possibly be construed a crude short-hand for - taken in context this is quite an amusing pun based on "ineffable" - ironic really under the circumstances, seeing as "ineffable" can mean "unutterable."

Shouldn't the profanity filter be blocking more...blatant abuses of the house rules?

I'd appreciate an explanation.

Thanks in advance.

Clive

And TPTB responded:

Hello Clive,

Thank you for your email. We appreciate your frustration over this matter.

The profanity filter, in its current form, is applied across many other DNA sites, and so the list of the words the filter will block on h2g2 is slightly different to those that were deemed unsuitable under the old system. This is because, in different contexts (ie, on other sites), certain words can seem more harsh. It isn't a matter of gauging different levels of offensiveness - the words on the list are blocked.

For consistency's sake, the same words in nicknames will be removed. One of the reasons for this is that pages that provide lists of Researchers may be blocked as a result of a banned word within a nickname (such as this one).

The profanity filter - apart from automatically protecting more vulnerable members of our audience from offensive language - should enable us to free resources (that might formerly have been spent responding to complaints about swearing) and use them to more positive ends. We feel that the blocking of occasional puns or wordplay is a small price to pay for these advantages. Therefore, we will not be reinstating the nickname.

Kind regards,

h2g2 Feedback

------

So there you have it.

Bum.

I guess this is going to turn out to be one of the downsides of being reactively moderated...

The moderators on other sites would have been looking at all postings/names and comparing them to a list of words anyway - so on another site you'd have known whether a word was unacceptable straight away...

The problem for hootoo is that the moderators only look at something is we yikes it - so up to now, unless it's _obviously_ against the rules or offensive, it's been left visible.

Except now whenever a personal space is updated it goes through the xxxx filter.

My guess is that this list isn't going to be the only complaint over the next few weeks.

I have an inkling you are going to be correct about that.

Nevertheless...I´ve learned a new english word today ...might end up with a greater knowledge of those than I have in my own lingo...

Just curious - what was the word?

the one that not is allowed to be in the Thingite Rooster...

ooooooh.

you mean ineffable?

The Thingite Rooster?